PHP DTO Library

Simple and lightweight PHP library for representing Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) with property value tracking.

Features

• Easy to use abstract Dto class for creating data transfer objects
• Property value tracking with Property wrapper class
• Support for creating DTOs from arrays with automatic property name conversion
• Track whether properties are initialized or not
• Automatic conversion between kebab-case and camelCase
• Type-safe with PHP 7.4+ and PHP 8.0+

Installation

Install the library via Composer:

composer require diffhead/php-dto

Testing

Run the test suite:

composer test

Requirements

• PHP 7.4 or higher
• diffhead/php-interfaces ^1.0
• jawira/case-converter ^3.6

Quick Start

Create a DTO class by extending the Dto abstract class:

<?php

use Diffhead\PHP\Dto\Dto;
use Diffhead\PHP\Dto\Property;

/**
 * Properties inside the Dto class
 * should be camelCase named and 
 * protected
 */
class UserCreate extends Dto
{
    protected Property $firstName;
    protected Property $lastName;
    protected Property $email;
}

Usage

Creating a DTO from Array

/**
 * But inside the source array you can use
 * camelCase, pascal_case, kebab-case, etc
 */
$data = [
    'first_name' => 'John',
    'lastName' => 'Doe',
    'email' => 'john@example.com'
];

$user = UserCreate::fromArray($data);

Accessing Properties

Access properties using magic methods. Each property returns a Property object that tracks both the value and whether it exists:

/**
 * Get the property object
 */
$firstName = $user->firstName;

/**
 * Check property exists and set
 */
if ($firstName->exists()) {
    echo $firstName->value(); // Output: John
}

Working with Property Objects

The Property class wraps values and tracks their existence:

$property = new \Diffhead\PHP\Dto\Property('1', true);

$property->value();    // Returns: '1'
$property->exists();   // Returns: true
$property->toInt();    // Returns: 1
$property->toFloat();  // Returns: 1.0
$proprety->toBool();   // Returns: true
$property->toArray();  // Returns: ['1']
$property->toString(); // Returns: '1'

$property = new \Diffhead\PHP\Dto\Property(null, false);

$property->value();    // Returns: null
$property->exists();   // Returns: false

Retrieving Values

Get multiple property values at once:

/**
 * Get all properties values
 * 
 * output: ['first_name' => 'John', 'lastName' => 'Doe', 'email' => 'john@example.com', 'age' => null]
 */
$values = $user->getValues(['first_name', 'lastName', 'email', 'age']);

/**
 * Get only existing properties values
 * 
 * output: ['first-name' => 'John', 'last.name' => 'Doe', 'email' => 'john@example.com']
 */
$values = $user->getValues(['first-name', 'last.name', 'email', 'age'], true);

Property Name Conversion

The library automatically handles class property name conversion:

• dot.case (e.g., first.name) → camelCase (e.g., firstName)
• kebab-case (e.g., first-name) → camelCase (e.g., firstName)
• snake_case (e.g., first_name) → camelCase (e.g., firstName)

This makes it easy to work with API responses and form data that might use different naming conventions.

But Diffhead\PHP\Dto\Dto::getValues method returns raw array keys as they was been passed.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.